Hyderabad:
On the basis of total premium income, the market shares of Life Insurance Corporation ( LIC) decreased from 71.81 percent in 2016-17 to 69.36 percent in 2017-18. The market share of private insurers has increased from 28.19 percent in 2016-17 to 30.64 percent in 2017-18, according to the IRDA's annual report for 2017-18..
However, in renewal premium, LIC continued to have a higher share at 69.35 percent (72.31 percent in previous year) when compared to 30.65 percent (27.69 percent in previous year) share of private insurers.
For the Indian life insurance industry,while renewal premium accounted for 57.68 percent (58.13 percent in previous year) of the total premium received by the life insurers, new business premium contributed the remaining 42.32 percent (41.87 percent in previous year).
The market share of private insurers in new business premium was 30.64 percent in 2017-18 (28.89 percent in previous year). The same for LIC was 69.36 percent (71.11 percent in previous year).
Life insurance industry recorded a premium income of Rs 458809.44 crore during 2017-18 as against Rs 418476.62 crore in the previous financial year, registering growth of 9.64 percent (14.04 percent growth inprevious year).
While private sector insurers posted 19.15 percent growth (17.40 percent growth in previous year) in their premium income, LIC recorded 5.90 percent growth (12.78 percent growth in previous year) .
During 2017-18, the growth in renewal premium was 8.79 percent (6.62 percent in previous year). New business premium registered a growth of 10.82 percent in comparison to a growth of 26.26 percent during previous year.
Further bifurcation of the new business premium indicates that single premium income received by the life insurers recorded a growth of 10.85 percent during 2017-18 (31.82 percent growth inprevious year). Single premium products continue to play a major role for LIC as they contributed 33.48 percent of LIC’s total premium income (32.71 percent in previous year). In comparison, the contribution of single premium income in total premium income during 2017-18 was 15.58 percent for private insurance companies (14.89 percent in previous year). I.3.6 The first year premium registered 10.75 percent growth in 2017-18, as against 16.64 percent growth in previous year.
The private life insurers registered a growth of 13.71 percent (22.17 percent growth in previous year); while LIC registered a growth of 7.02 percent in the first year premium (10.37 percent growth in previous year).
During 2017-18, life insurers issued 281.97 lakh new individual policies, out of which LIC issued 213.38 lakh policies (75.7% of total new policies issued) and the private life insurers issued 68.59 lakh policies (24.3% of total new policies issued). While the private sector achieved a growth of 8.47% in the number of new policies issued against the previous year, LIC achieved a growth of 5.99%.
Higher share of ULIPS
Unit-linked products (ULIPs) registered a growth of 22.72 percent premium from Rs 52845.26 crore in 2016-17 to Rs 64850.90 crore in 2017-18.On the other hand, the growth in premium from traditional products was at 7.75 percent, with premium Rs 393958.54 crore as against Rs 365631.36 crore in 2016-17.
Accordingly, the share of unit-linked products in total premium increased to 14.13 percent in 2017-18 as against 12.63 percent in 2016-17.
The overall expenses (commission and operating expenses) of life insurers increased by 8.67 percent in the 2017-18. (increased by 15.60 percent in 2016- 17).